Saudi Arabia plans to launch a renewables program within weeks requiring investment of $30-50bn by 2023, according to Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih. Addressing the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi on 16 January, Mr Falih said the program would involve the development of 10GW of renewables capacity.
The announcement follows a major rethink of an earlier and more ambitious renewables program set out by the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy (Kacare), which envisaged 54GW of renewables capacity by 2032. Although this plan was announced in 2013 (MEES, 1 March 2013), the kingdom’s end-2016 renewables capacity amounted to a mere 25MW (0.025GW) of small-scale solar, that is to say 0.05% of the 2032 target. (CONTINUED - 331 WORDS)
